Cannes Report, Day 6: Harvey’s Ghost, Fainting Over Lars von Trier

It’s been almost a week dodging raindrops and “No Selfies on the Red Carpet” warnings at the Cannes Film Festival, where all cylinders seem to be firing for filmmakers, sales agents and news-making stars in town.

The banished-ish Lars von Trier (“Melancholia,” “Antichrist”) returns to the festival after a seven year absence over a press conference blunder where the director said he had some sympathy for Adolf Hitler.

His latest, “The House That Jack Built,” has a first look trailer — and, as social media tells it, has festival organizers preparing for extreme reactions from the crowd.

Elsewhere, the conversation about former Cannes stalwart Harvey Weinstein continues, as embedded festival media reflect on his absence. In diametric opposition, the gender parity conversation moves from the red carpet to the big screen as films shine light on a world fighting the patriarchy.

Here’s what’s shaking in the South of France today:

Lars and His New “House”

Much has been made of von Trier’s return after being declared persona non grata by the festival in 2011, but little has been shared about what he’s bringing to the table in “The House That Jack Built.”

Ahead of his Monday night premiere, IFC Films dropped a teaser trailer for the Matt Dillon film, and it’s a doozy. The ’80s heartthrob appears to be a haphazard serial killer in the throws of an existential crisis. Uma Thurman and Riley Keough make Hitchcockian blonde cameos as von Trier seems to be commenting on his own body of work through Dillon’s character.

“Some people think that the atrocities we commit in our fiction are those inner desires we cannot commit in our controlled civilization,” Dillon’s character muses in between bashing Thurman in the face with a car jack, imprisoning Keough in a hotel room and dragging a body from the back of a van, as blood spills out onto the highway. Cute!

In the official Cannes program, a warning appears next to the film’s schedule times: “Certain scenes are likely to offend the sensitivity of the spectators.”

There’s even speculation on Twitter that the festival is putting medics on standby should moviegoers faint during the screening.

Here’s the trailer:

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The Fallen “King of Cannes”

On the heels of Salma Hayek’s comments that Harvey Weinstein openly discredited her abuse claims because she’s a woman of color, one critic commented on the disgraced mogul’s absence.

“The late Harvey Weinstein (well, it feels that way) was famous for bossing the Croisette with his uniquely charming blend of proximal aggression and creative vulgarity,” writes The Irish Times film critic Donald Clarke.

He recounted a Weinstein anecdote about meeting Prince Albert of Monaco, who was allegedly introduced to the monarch by Roger Ebert as “the King of Cannes.”

A king no longer.

“The most horrible manifestations of his power lunacy have, following revelations last October, led to his virtual banishment from Cannes,” the critic said.

TheWrap touched this week on the blazing dominance of women in Cannes this year, from jurors Cate Blanchett and Ava DuVernay protesting on the Croisette to Monday’s pledge from festival organizers to level a massive programming gender gap .

The unifying sentiment is perhaps a direct response to the toxic Hollywood culture exposed in the Weinstein scandal — and now it’s showing up on screen.

“Girls of the Sun” takes a hardened look at a female Kurdish unit fighting ISIS, and is being interpreted as a prism for the real-world events unfolding around the festival.

“If this year is one of reckoning for women, then ‘Girls of the Sun,’ screening in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, is the film for this era,” our own Sharon Waxman, CEO and editor-in-chief of TheWrap, wrote of the film.

“Any number of scenes swing between pathos and horror, but the film cannot possibly exaggerate the horrors that women in this part of the world have actually lived,” Waxman said.

Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times singled out “Girls” and Jafar Panahi’s “3 Faces” as titles that “battle the patriarchy.”

As political and empowering as it is to see parity steal Cannes’ thunder, it’s nice to see these social anxieties and battle cries for change show up in the movies. It is a film festival, after all.

16 Cannes Winners That Went on to Take Oscar Gold (Photos)

Despite being two of the longest running institutions in cinema, the Oscars and Cannes have not always been the best bedfellows. Only one film has won both the Palme d'Or and Best Picture. But many more films that have played on the Croisette at Cannes have been nominated or won other big prizes from the Academy. These are the 16 films that both won the Palme d'Or and won an additional Oscar:

"Marty" (1955)

In the first year that Cannes started calling their top prize the Palme d'Or, the Delbert Mann drama and romance based on a Paddy Chayefsky teleplay won the film festival's highest honor -- and went on to earn four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing and Best Actor for Ernest Borgnine. But since then, not one film has gone on to win both the Best Picture Oscar and Palme d'Or.

United Artists

"The Silent World" (1956)

Jacques-Yves Cousteau's pioneering, underwater nature documentary beat out films from Satyajit Ray, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and more to win the Palme d'Or, and it also took home the Best Documentary Oscar.

Columbia Pictures

"Black Orpheus" (1959)

Marcel Camus's dreamy, contemporary take on the Orpheus and Eurydice Greek myth won the Palme d'Or and the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

Lopert Films

"La Dolce Vita" (1960)

Federico Fellini's sensuous reverie of a film "La Dolce Vita" managed Oscar nods for Best Director and Screenplay, but only won for Best Costume Design.

Astor Pictures Corporation

"A Man and a Woman" (1966)

The Academy rewarded this French New Wave romance starring Anouk Aimee and Jean-Louis Trintignant with two Oscars, one for its screenplay and another for Best Foreign Language Film.

Allied Artists Pictures

"MASH" (1970)

It's surprising to see Cannes anoint a film as irreverent as Robert Altman's screwball war satire "MASH," but though the Oscars nominated it for Best Picture, the award went to another war film, "Patton." "MASH" did pick up a win for Altman's ingenious ensemble screenplay.

Twentieth Century Fox

"Apocalypse Now" (1979)

Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam war masterpiece was still a work-in-progress when it screened at Cannes, and it would split the Palme d'Or with "The Tin Drum" that same year. It was nominated for eight Oscars and won two, but lost Best Picture to "Kramer vs. Kramer."

United Artists

"The Tin Drum" (1979)

After splitting the Palme d'Or with "Apocalypse Now," "The Tin Drum" won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar with ease.

The Criterion Collection

"All That Jazz" (1980)

Weirdly, Bob Fosse's musical was nominated alongside "Apocalypse Now" at the 1979 Oscars, opening in December of that year, but it won the 1980 Cannes after cleaning up four Oscars just a month earlier.

Columbia Pictures Corporation/20th Century Fox

"Missing" (1982)

Jack Lemmon won Cannes' Best Actor prize for Costa-Gavras's political thriller in addition to "Missing" winning the Palme d'Or. And Lemmon and co-star Sissy Spacek each scored acting nominations in addition to the film being nominated for Best Picture, but it only won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Universal Pictures

"The Mission" (1986)

Starring Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons as Spanish Jesuits trying to save a native American tribe, Roland Joffe's "The Mission" won the Palme d'Or and earned seven nominations but only one Oscar win for Best Cinematography.

Warner Bros.

"Pelle the Conqueror" (1987)

The legendary Max von Sydow plays a Swedish immigrant in Denmark in this Danish film that won the Palme d'Or, the Best Foreign Language Oscar and netted Sydow his first acting nomination.

Miramax

"The Piano" (1993)

Holly Hunter won the Best Actress prize at both Cannes and the Oscars for Jane Campion's drama that won the Palme d'Or and was nominated for eight Oscars in all.

Miramax

"Pulp Fiction" (1994)

Much has been written about the bombshell Quentin Tarantino set off when "Pulp Fiction" debuted at Cannes and polarized audiences by winning the Palme d'Or, not to mention the cultural rift it created when it went head-to-head with "Forrest Gump" at the Oscars and lost.

Miramax

"The Pianist" (2002)

Winning Best Director for Roman Polanski and Best Actor for Adrien Brody, "The Pianist" was a strong favorite to win Best Picture after winning the Palme d'Or, but it lost to the musical "Chicago." Just don't expect a repeat from Polanski anytime soon.

Focus Features

"Amour" (2012)

Michael Haneke had just won his second Palme d'Or for his sobering romance about old age "Amour," and rightfully so. The film paired French New Wave legends Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva and scored five Oscar nominations in all, including Best Picture, but only came away with a win for Best Foreign Language Film.

Sony Pictures Classics

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But only one film has ever won both the Palme d’Or and Best Picture

Despite being two of the longest running institutions in cinema, the Oscars and Cannes have not always been the best bedfellows. Only one film has won both the Palme d'Or and Best Picture. But many more films that have played on the Croisette at Cannes have been nominated or won other big prizes from the Academy. These are the 16 films that both won the Palme d'Or and won an additional Oscar: